Trump campaign: Rough week but we won

FPI / August 11, 2020

As Joe Biden bumbled in the basement, saying that all blacks are alike and mocking a reporter for asking about his cognitive health, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders to boost the covid recovery and continued to engineer the largest economic comeback in history, a Trump campaign official noted.

"One weekend in August highlighted the contrast of Donald Trump as a bold leader at the helm, forging a national renaissance, versus Joe Biden as a tired and tottering basement dweller, being commandeered by the most radical elements of American politics," Steve Cortes, a senior adviser for strategy to the Trump 2020 Campaign, wrote for RealClearPolitics on Monday.

Trump on Saturday issued executive orders to suspend payroll taxes for the rest of the year for workers earning less than $100,000. The president also postponed all student loan payments for the rest of the year.

The executive action also included a $400-per-week supplemental unemployment payment to out-of-work Americans and an extension of protections from evictions for renters and homeowners.

"These measures assure that the vigorous, but still-nascent, recovery can sustain itself — and accelerate. Unfortunately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenants again refused to bargain in good faith, insisting on attaching massive federal bailouts for profligate liberal states to legislation designed to boost wages for working-class Americans while proffering extended assistance to the financially vulnerable who have been harmed through no fault of their own," Cortes wrote.

The week that was included good news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The bureau released its July jobs report, showing that 1.8 million new jobs were added and that the unemployment rate had dropped to 10.2. The new jobs for July ran the three-month total of new jobs created to 9.3 million.

"To be sure, much work remains to return our country to the thriving job market we enjoyed in early 2020 before our world was rocked by a new virus raging around the world, which threatened to crash the global economy. The damage remains real and widespread, but recent macro data also point to recovery, as green shoots abound," Cortes wrote.

Cortes cited last week’s ISM Manufacturing Index, which rose to the highest level in over one and half year. The most recent existing homes sales data showed the largest monthly increase ever fueled by historic low mortgage rates which boosted buyer confidence.

"Even in a volatile political year with endless crosscurrents, once voters actually start casting their ballots it seems reasonable to assume that one traditional factor will still motivate most voters: Which candidate can create more prosperity? On this score, President Trump had an impressive weekend, and his achievements shine in contrast to Joe Biden’s week of embarrassing stumbles," Cortes wrote.

Cortes continued: "This divergence of recent days suggests a tightening of the election, and various surveys indicated this is happening. According to the RealClearPolitics poll average, Biden’s lead dropped by four percentage points over the last two weeks. If the past week is prologue, by our national decision day in November, Americans will embrace an administration that showed it learned how to effectively manage virus risks while reigniting the great economic engine of the United States."

Free Press International